


Answers

by TheYesterdayShow



Series: Sanders Sides tumblr prompts! [4]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Amnesia, Angst, Clocks, Crying, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders Angst, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders Being Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders-centric, Emotional, Emotional Hurt, Flowers, Food, Gen, Hurt, Hurt Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Post-it Notes, Questions, Sympathetic Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Tumblr Prompt, bones - Freeform, deceit sanders mention - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-11
Updated: 2020-02-11
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:40:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22666423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheYesterdayShow/pseuds/TheYesterdayShow
Summary: Every day, Remus asks a question.Every day, Remus thinks long and hard about what it should be. Sometimes, he gets too excited and wastes his one question. Then he’s frustrated at himself all the next day, or longer. It hurts to waste a question. Sometimes, he remembers what he’s most curious about, or asks about something philosophical. Most days it’s something he’s asked before, because he’s forgotten the answer. That’s okay, though; he has every single day to ask a new question!
Series: Sanders Sides tumblr prompts! [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1624342
Comments: 13
Kudos: 110





	Answers

**Author's Note:**

> From the prompt "What do you mean they're not back yet?" from @enragedbees over on tumblr! Feel free to send me a prompt @thetomorrowshow

Every day, Remus asks a question.

Every day, Remus thinks long and hard about what it should be. Sometimes, he gets too excited and wastes his one question. Then he’s frustrated at himself all the next day, or longer. It hurts to waste a question. Sometimes, he remembers what he’s most curious about, or asks about something philosophical. Most days it’s something he’s asked before, because he’s forgotten the answer. That’s okay, though; he has every single day to ask a new question!

Today, Remus does everything he usually does. He sits at his desk for an hour every morning, brainstorming for the question he’ll ask. He rarely gets the question that he ends up asking, but he likes to think about questions in general. They’re curious things, simple yet knowledgeable. A question pulls back so many layers of a person, if you know which ones to ask and which ones to answer. Remus thinks, if he were a question, he’d be one that only meant anything to one person. An inside joke, or a reason to exist. Like, _how long does it take for the enter key to fall off a keyboard?_ or _what do your tattoos mean?_ or _why is that road named Cherry?_ or something else so meaningless that it’s meaningful.

After sitting at his desk, Remus carefully avoids looking at the Answer on his way out the door. He doesn’t want to accidentally ask the wrong question, and he still has the whole day ahead of him!

Outside his bedroom are the bones he always licks, part of an ongoing project to see how dry bone-dry really is. After that is the TVs, upon which he pours whatever fluid is in the fridge–another project. One TV is always brand new, the other is always the same one from yesterday and the day before and the day before. This way, he can know how the liquid affects the new TV, and how much worse it’ll make an already ruined one. These are his two experiments that never end. There are others, but they fluctuate.

For the rest of the morning, Remus tends to his flower garden. There are different sections to test different soils, a project that he’ll probably be bored with within the month. Right now, though, he’s trying to breed a flower with retractable thorns. He can’t wait to see the face of whoever he gives it to! It’ll be so funny to see their faces go from complimented to shocked as the thorns suddenly jab into their flesh!

After gardening, Remus likes to run. He never used to–he was always able to get his energy out in more creative ways in the past, but now that he’s alone, he just has so much to burn off. Sometimes he’s a vigilante chasing a villain. Sometimes he’s a villain, chasing his next victim. Sometimes he’s a frightened runner, certain that someone’s following, and hears the slapping of feet and runs harder but he’s being tackled and held down and–

Remus likes being the victim the best.

If he remembers, he eats after a rest. His food isn’t generally very exciting, something boring like eggs, or the dirt in his garden(he keeps forgetting what it tastes like). Today, Remus eats a quesadilla, some coffee grounds slipped between the tortillas. It’s pretty good.

For the rest of the day, Remus creates. He’s rarely very productive. His best work is always done in the middle of the night, or on a spur-of-the-moment idea. He works best around people, but since he doesn’t have that, he makes do. Today, though, he manages to make paper out of grass! Talk about going green. He eats it immediately. It’s not too bad, and Remus thinks he would make it again, but he’s forgotten how.

Finally, it’s time to ask the question. He’s really excited about this one! Remus thinks, maybe, it’s the best question he’s ever had. He’s had trouble holding onto it all day, but it was so important and interesting that he just had to remember.

Remus checks on the TVs, then the bones, then goes into his room. He can’t look at the Answer yet, though, he has to check the clock.

The sticky note Dee left is still on his bedside table, faded by the passing years and Remus’s fingers, but he can still read the words.

 _We have to go. Will return by 7pm_.

“Eight o’clock! They aren’t back! Eight o’clock! They aren’t back!” his annoying alarm clock sings. Remus knows he should destroy it, build something less irritating maybe, but when he built it he just wanted something to talk to him again and he still wants that. It never replies, but he can talk to it, so Remus huffs and asks it, his frustration and loneliness building up, “What do you mean they’re not back yet?”

Then he realizes his mistake.

He looks at the Answer and falls to his knees, sobs catching in his throat.

“No! That wasn’t the question! I don’t want that answer! Please!”

The Answer is there, telling him exactly why they aren’t back yet. Remus clutches his head and pulls at his hair. He can’t–he doesn’t want–please–

A horrid sound tears from his throat as he tears his eyes away from the Answer. He has to forget this. He doesn’t want it to hurt, his heart is breaking, he can’t feel this day after day after day after day. So he gets in bed, sniffling and hurting, and forgets.

The Answer is still there, though. The Answer doesn’t change, even when he forgets it.

Mirrors can’t lie, after all.


End file.
